1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to dwellings equipped with a room-heating device and hot water feeder based on solar energy.
The known room-heating device based on solar heat includes a hot water type with water used as a heat-transferring medium and a hot air type with air used as a heat-transferring medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The former type heats water by solar heat accumulated in a heat collector built in the roofing of a dwelling, and circulates hot water through the rooms for heating. This device can be utilized as a hot water feeder which enables hot water to be applied not only in room heating but also in cooking and washing. Water used as a heat transferring medium has a large heat capacity and can render the subject device considerably compact. However, this hot water type device has the drawback that if water leaks from a water-circulating system set on the roofing of a dwelling, the ceilings, walls, matting and furniturs, etc will possibly be wetted by said leaking water. Further, where a single heat collector is concurrently used for room heating as well as for supply of hot water, the operation of such heat collector should be properly changed over according to the object intended. The reason is that in winter, both room heating and supply of hot water are required, whereas, in summer, only supply of hot water is needed and room heating rather leads to great inconvenience. Therefore, this type of heat collector is defective in that the structure and handling become unavoidably complicated.
Though free from the above-mentioned difficulties, the latter type which heats air by a heat collector still has the drawback that air used as a heat-transferring medium has a small heat capacity, making it necessary to use a large size apparatus.